


i'm crashing, please catch me

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [24]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Space, Crash Landing, F/M, Fluff, I LOVE Them sm...., M/M, Meet-Cute, Multi, Polyamory, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship, im not afraid to say it, lol is it tho?? hm, my favorite trio honestly, naruto and hinata are aliens!!!, shika has no idea what's happening here but at least the aliens are cute, shikamaru crashes on an alien planet, space travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28970445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: Shikamaru crashes on a planet. That should be concerning, but he's rather distracted by the two planet natives that rescue him.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata/Nara Shikamaru/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	i'm crashing, please catch me

**Author's Note:**

> Day 24: Alien AU / Shikamaru + Hinata + Naruto

Shikamaru wakes in a storm of smoke, exhaling ash from bruised lungs. Under his suit is a myriad of purple beaten into his flesh, sweat coating every available inch in a tacky second skin. The shuttle is a burning wreck and he is a victim of circumstance, trapped under twisted metal and machinery, the taste of a burning rubber coating the back of his tongue. Every swallow is painful, his throat seared dry by the heat of unforgiving fire. 

_ What a pain. _

In both the literal and figurative sense. His body hurts, bones rattled so violently by the crash that he feels as if he’s still vibrating. Possibly concussed, if the hazy vision is any indication. Warm copper pools in his mouth, crimson dripping down from his nose and somewhere on his scalp to slip into parted lips and paint a gruesome image against his teeth.

He can’t remember what planet this is — which one had been nearest as his systems failed and his craft has submitted to the closest gravitational pull. It felt a lot like sabotage. A lot like a storm brewing that he’d been willfully blind to, perhaps thinking it too troublesome to look closer.

Guess he’ll have to change that attitude, if he ever gets out of here. First order of business is finding or building a communications device so he can contact the main ship. If he’s lucky, this planet is inhabited by a species with similar intelligence. If he’s not, it’s a million times more bothersome but he’ll figure something out, even if he’d rather lay down and die due to sheer laziness. 

Speaking of dying.

Shikamaru flexes his body carefully. His left leg feels  _ not great, _ but seeing as his other option is burning to death in the wreckage of a spacecraft, he’ll have to bear it. His chest hurts when he breathes too deeply, but nothing feels especially sharp. Bruises, most likely. Then there’s the bleeding from his head and possible concussion.

So. Not top form tonight. He can’t say he’s been in worse situations, but Ino’s always telling him he needs to try new things.

Shikamaru coughs out a lungful of ash that makes the ache in his chest flare up fiercely. The smoke is getting pretty bad, but at least he’s not too terribly pinned by the wreckage. He can inch his way through shredded metal and shards of shattered glass that was once able to withstand the vacuum of space. Every foot is painful, but he manages to slide out between two warped steel beams towards the pocket of light that spoke of freedom. 

He really doesn’t know what planet he’s on.

Based on the fact that he’s not being destroyed under the weight of too-heavy gravity, or gasping and suffocating due to a non-compatible atmosphere, he’s probably not in danger of dying because of planetary composition. If anything, he’ll die from his wounds or whatever wildlife that greets him. 

With that morbid thought, Shikamaru slips out of the main bulk of the wreckage and into the bright world of an unknown planet. It has a sun, at least, the light making his head ache to the point of dizziness. The throbbing doesn’t cease, only grows into a thundering stampede against his skull. He blinks and blinks but his vision does not clear, and he becomes aware of the fact that he can’t bring his body to move —

* * *

Shikamaru wakes again, slowly and without lungs full of smoke. Wherever he is remains dim, though he can’t tell if that’s due to the hour or his location. He takes stock of his injuries once more, cataloguing the hurt and comparing it to the initial data. 

Leg: immobilized, slightly numb with no discernable pain. 

Chest: breathing has returned to average, ache from any bruising is minimal. 

Head: judging by the bandages, taken care of.

Someone else must have dragged his body away from the remains of his shuttle and treated him. Someone with skill, a concept of medicine — intelligence. Shikamaru slides his eyes open, amber gaze shifting to the side. 

“Hi!” Eyes the color of the brightest earth sky blink down at him, framed with golden lashes to match equally golden hair. The man — maybe man, because who knew with certain species or just gender expression in general — greets him with a toothy smile and glows.

Literally. 

Tanned skin provides a soft, sunny illumination that reflects off the walls like warm candlelight. There are three lines on each cheek, sheer white and glowing a little brighter than the rest of the alien.

“Hi.” Shikamaru replies dumbly. “Are you...do you live here? On this planet?” Then, because he wants to make sure, “What are your pronouns?”

“I am male of species!” The blonde replies, obviously not as skilled in Shikamaru’s language. “This is home planet. We are in  _ Uzu _ country.” He pats his chest. “My country. I am Uzumaki Naruto. You are male human, yes? Or other? You are from space? From earth colony? You are named who?”

Shikamaru takes a breath, squinting as the other man begins to glow even more intensely with apparent excitement. It’s just his luck he gets saddled with a man who looks like he’s made of stars and  _ won’t stop talking. _ Whatever species the man is, he looks relatively humanoid in shape and features. The only other discernible  _ non-human _ features aside from the glowing are the teeth and nails that are  _ definitely  _ too sharp, and ears that are long and pointed, like an elf from old earth fiction. He’s dressed in soft robes with intense embroidery along the sleeves and chest, embedded with beads and stones that look unfamiliar to Shikamaru. The pattern looks like a swirling, vividly detailed storm over an ocean that’s churning with whirlpools.

But he keeps going back to Naruto’s eyes. An unnamed blue, crystalline and captivating, the irises larger than a human’s, the sclera only visible at the very corners of his eyes — Shikamaru feels like he’s being sucked into a whirlpool and isn’t so sure he’d mind drowning at sea.

“Yeah, uh, I’m a human male. My name is Nara Shikamaru, from Colony-19210. Did you heal me?”

Naruto shakes his head, “No. No skill in heal. Hinata heal Shikamaru. She is good at job, you should feel no pain.”

“Yeah, I feel pretty alright.” He murmurs, pushing himself up. His leg is wrapped in some kind of bandage or cloth, but no blood stains it so he’s content enough to assume that it’s not going to fall off anytime soon. “Hey, uh, Naruto, do you guys, er, do your people happen to have any communication devices? For contacting off-planet locations?”

The glowing man frowns, burnt gold fluttering against his cheekbones with every commiserating blink. He lets out a long  _ hmmm _ noise, the shimmering firelight on his skin dimming for a moment. 

“You need…. _ communicate _ with space colony?”

“Yeah.” Then, to simplify, “I need to talk to my people.”

“Talk!” Naruto claps his hands, sunshine returning to his visible flesh, he smiles just as vividly, if not more. “Yes, yes, I get it! You come? I will take you to talk.”

Shikamaru nods, pushing himself out of the bed even though his brain is screaming at him to just go back to sleep. 

The room is small, crafted with what looks like pale wood planks. Carpets line the floors in shades of crimson and sunset orange. A large mosaic of stained glasses and painted tiles makes up the wall his cot is pressed against. The only light is from a crystal embedded in each wall and Naruto himself. The door is on the wall across from him, but it is less a door and more an opening covered with a thick, draped curtain in a deep shade of cerulean that bleeds into indigo. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Shikamaru sees it tremble and pull to the side.

“Naruto?” A head of dark purple peers in, the lavender illumination of her skin matching the lavender color of her eyes. “Oh!” She exclaims upon seeing him, gripping the curtain with vibrant hands as if to shield herself. The pale purple emanating off her skin pulses brighter.

“Hinata! This human is Nara Shikamaru!” Naruto greets, smiling easily with his too-sharp teeth. He waves her over and looks to Shikamaru. “She heal you!”

Shikamaru shifts awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ah, thanks.”

“O-Oh, you are….welcome. I am glad you are...no...not injured no, um, any longer.” Hinata relinquishes her hold on the curtain, timidly coming into the room. Her fingers push together nervously, and there’s a deep blue flush on her cheeks where a human might burn red. She’s pretty — gorgeous might be a more suitable adjective — with thick, star-speckled lashes, a plush mouth and soft features. 

They’re both pretty, actually; blindingly so. Shikamaru feels a bit like a speck of dirt next to them. Like a simple earthling could ever compare to these two, the incarnations of the sun and moon.  _ What the hell am I even thinking? What a pain in my ass...Focus. _

Naruto clasps one of Shikamaru’s hands in his own. “We take you to my home. You  _ communicate.” _

“Yes,” Shikamaru replies, mouth dry and stomach fluttering. This is getting more troublesome by the second. He feels it in his bones. His freshly non-aching bones.

Naruto’s hand is warm and golden, a hearth of flames that spill highlights of cinnamon across the brown of Shikamaru’s skin. Everything about him is stupidly blinding, like looking into a quasar. They’ve just met and already Shikamaru thinks he’ll never find anyone as captivating as these two, even if he spent eternity searching the galaxy. 

He awkwardly shakes Naruto’s hand, feeling a little stupid when he’s usually the smartest in the room, especially when the sunny man furrows his brow and looks entirely confused at the motion. 

“Human custom.” He blurts, swiftly removing his hand from Naruto’s and reaching out to Hinata to prove — something. To prove he isn’t a weirdo, maybe. He can barely explain it himself, and it’s too much of a bother at this point.

The two planet natives look completely caught off guard. Hinata flushes a deeper shade of violet as she takes his offered hand in her own smaller, ethereal one. Her skin is far cooler than Naruto’s blaze, but that suits her. 

“Human custom!” Naruto repeats excitedly, surprising Shikamaru by taking his free hand, and then Hinata’s other. He looks positively delighted as the three of them stand in a circle, shaking intertwined hands up and down.

Hinata giggles softly as Naruto pulls both captured hands to his chest, where Shikamaru can feel a steady heartbeat under his palm as his thumb brushes Hinata’s own. Her fluorescence is like moonlight, her fingers dainty in comparison. Naruto brings their hands to his lips and presses a gentle kiss to each of their palms, his azure gaze flashing up under liquid gold lashes to meet Shikamaru’s flabbergasted expression. 

“Uzu custom.” He smirks, voice low enough to rumble in his chest.

Shikamaru can only stare and hope he doesn’t look as foolish as he thinks he does. “You—what? Wait—”

Naruto doesn’t let either of them go as he drags them out of the little room into the world beyond the curtain, glee in the sparkle of his sky-like eyes and a soft acceptance in the curve of Hinata’s mouth. Shikamaru can only stumble to match the sun’s pace, just a simple planet in their orbit. Unendingly captivated.

Both his hands are warm. His chest is full; against the cage of his ribs, his heart beats in kind with the pulse of two different wrists.

_ What a drag. _

**Author's Note:**

> Follow / Support me on [Tumblr](https://spideyfoof.tumblr.com/) and let me know if you'd like to see more of this AU!


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